Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant

Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant
The Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant
Location of Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant in Romania
Country	Romania
Coordinates	44°19′20″N 28°03′26″E / 44.32222°N 28.05722°E / 44.32222; 28.05722Coordinates: 44°19′20″N 28°03′26″E / 44.32222°N 28.05722°E / 44.32222; 28.05722
Construction began	1980s
Commission date	2 December 1996
Operator(s)	Nuclearelectrica
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PHWR
Reactor supplier	CANDU
Power generation
Units operational	2 x 706 MW
Units planned	2 x 720 MW
Nameplate capacity	1400 MW
Capacity factor	94.7%
Annual gross output	11,618 GW·h

The Nuclear Power Plant in Cernavodă (Romanian: Centrala Nucleară de la Cernavodă) is a nuclear power plant in Romania. It produces around 20% of the country's electricity. It uses CANDU reactor technology from AECL, using heavy water produced at Drobeta-Turnu Severin as its neutron moderator and water from the Danube – Black Sea Canal for cooling.

By using nuclear power, Romania is able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by over 10 million tonnes each year.

The power plant was designed in Canada by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited in the 1980s, and was contracted during the Communist era. The initial plan was to build five units. Units 1 and 2 are currently operational. Three more partially completed CANDU reactors exist on the same site, part of a project discontinued at the fall of the Ceauşescu regime.

CNE-INVEST is responsible for the preservation of Units 3-5.

Unit 1, a CANDU 6-type, was finished in 1996 and produces 705.6 MW of electricity.

It was commissioned and began operating at full power in 1996 and has had record capacity factors of 90 percent since 2005.

A consortium of AECL and Ansaldo Nucleare of Italy, along with the Nuclearelectrica (SNN) SA, Romania’s nuclear public utility, was contracted in 2003 to manage the construction of the partially completed Unit 2 power plant and to commission it into service.